Zapper

50€, a shirt and django unchained

Usually, 3 cores amd cpus are just 4 cores cpus, which have a "weaker core". Sometimes, they even are perfectly healthy 4 cores cpu they rebrand to sell them. You can look for tutorials on how to do it, they will explain it better than me. And it is true you can lose your cpu. But if you are going to buy one anyways, it might save you some money. I'm just sayin'.

Why don't you try unlocking the 4th core of your cpu first?

Thinking about selling my slightly used 660Ti, I still have the box and 4 years(!) of warranty remaining. 140€? (I see it at 250€ new at amazon.fr)

If it has gorilla glass V2 i might be a really interesting choice. I wonder if it will be possible to switch the OS for a linux distrib or something like that. Wait and see.

Around 1200€ for the entire household. Still a lot, but the upgrade on my Q6600 and 8800gtx was needed x)

I really enjoy the stability nvidia grapics cards offer. On my previous amd (ati in fact) gpu, I had a lot of problems trying to find a good driver: driver kept crashing, leading to a blinking screen, than the driver recovered. But if the 290x is better at >1080p (which is the future, we have to stop gaming at 1280x1024 ), and is a lot cheaper... Will be hard to stay with nvidia. We have to wait and see, drivers will be the gamebreaker (for both performence and stability)

Thanks everyone, I checked 7790 and 7850 benchmarks. I'll go with the 7790, otherwise I'd have to change the PSU, plus for a non gamer the price difference isn't really worth it.

What's the best graphics card for around 100$ (can stretch up a bit) System is for a non gamer, who sometimes like to play some games like the sims, or alice madness returns. No need for super high fps in ultra, game must be playable with low settings though. Cpu is a FX-6300. I was thinking of a 7770, but new gens amd are coming. What to get?

Depends on the application. If you mean games, you have to know they do not have the same requirements, some are more CPU intensive, other are more GPU intensive. Title doesn't alway say it all

Well I paid (in euros) 170 for I5 180 for 660Ti 60 for 8gb ram 60 for corsaire 600w psu 80 for MSI mb 60 for Antec case 80 for Vertex 4 ssd ------ 690euros You are right on 2 things though first, I'm bad in math, it makes 900$ not 800 x) second, I might not max games like metro last light on ultra. But there are not many games that demanding. And I'm pretty sure an overclocking would not change much. I might try it if I need it, as I said before, this was not an anti-overclocking thread. I was just asking why people overclock, what kind of actual* benefits does it provide. -- * Saying more performance or free performance doesn't really answer my question

Tinker : Attempt to repair or improve something in a casual or desultory way, often to no useful effect. No useful effect describes it well . It's not like I'm totally unaware of computers, and I used to overclock just to be able to post on forums "Q6600@4GHz" and things like that. But I was wondering if other people were able to find a real use to overclocking, and from what I've heard in this thread, a few guys know what they are doing, can find real use in OCing. Others do it just for fun, just to see how far they can push it. It's fine by me, that's why I opened this thread in the first place. But if I have to waste time for fun, I'd rather build a medi center out of a raspberry pi, or develop a program that checks my movie database. I guess I'm more of a software guy after all (even if I majored in Electronics? )

Nowadays, transistors are so small we can mesure them in atoms, but here is an image of a transistor. http://www.overclock.net/content/type/61/id/781611/width/272/height/206

I bought my GTX 660ti for 175€ in Belgium. Maybe if you wait you can find a good deal.

Not a real answer to my question, but I will still try to answer you. With my i5-4570 and my GTX 660Ti, I play all games in ultra. Never been forced to drop a setting. Now, why would I waste time to try overclocking (because OCing is not just pressing buttons, you have to test it for many hours, maybe fail etc.). I just play games, sometimes the weekend. I don't want to spend 8 or 9 hours for 5 to 10 fps I won't even notice. Now for older configs, I get it.